Lupita Nyong’o Discusses Her ‘Black Panther’ Character Nakia

Lupita Nyong’o is on a roll. She’s already part of one major franchise, ‘Star Wars’ and now she’s jumping into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of the all-star cast of ‘Black Panther’. Her character, Nakia is described as a “Wakandan spy pulled from her mission abroad by her former flame T’Challa.”

“I can say that Nakia, when we meet her, is a war dog which means she’s one of Wakanda’s CIA agents. Her job is to spy around the world and report back to Wakanda to keep Wakanda safe and keep Wakanda informed.

“[She] consistently gets involved in conflict for the good of others, adamant to use her abilities to help those in need, [and she] puts her skills of subterfuge and hand-to-hand combat to use in order to fight alongside Black Panther.”

In the comics, Nakia’s journey takes a dark twist, as she becomes so obsessed with T’Challa and tries to kill one of his girlfriends and eventually becomes the full-blown villain Malice. But it doesn’t sound as if the movie will follow that. The film is packed with several powerful female characters, including Angela Bassett who plays T’Challa’s mother Ramonda plus Danai Gurira as fellow warrior Okoye and Letitia Wright as Shuri, T’Challa’s sister and a fierce combatant in her own right. Don’t expect to see these ladies competing for attention though.

As Nyong’o says:

“[Director Ryan Coogler] made a point of avoiding the expected female-rival narrative. In this genre, where spandex is involved, oftentimes the women are pitted against each other. In our story, there are so many different women holding their own space. Women may be in competition with each other, sure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an absence of love or respect. Making this film awakened me.”

Hopes are high for this film. It had the fastest-selling tickets of any Marvel movie so far and Fandango listed it as the second-most anticipated movie of the year, behind ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.

Jason Motes

Jason's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes. Jason's father gamely agreed to read him comic books as bedtime stories instead of 'Snow White.' (Super Friends being his favorite.) Jason saw all of the original Star Wars movies (and Indiana Jones and Superman and Star Trek...) in the theaters. Yes, he is old. And grew up in the most GEEKTASTIC decade ever, the 80s, devouring a steady diet of GI Joe, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Princess of Power and (best of all) Jem! (It totally counts as sci fi! They had a sentient computer that projected holograms!) Jason has studied literature, journalism, film history and has a degree in creative writing (and a minor in psychology) from the University of South Alabama. He has worked as a technical writer and proofreader. These days, most of his creative energy goes into his blog and writing for this site! He lives with the cutest puppies ever.